From 'screenwriting for sound' to film sound maps: the evolution of live tone's creative alliance with Bong Joon-ho

Lee, NJ-Y ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6342-6725 and Stringer, J, 2018. From 'screenwriting for sound' to film sound maps: the evolution of live tone's creative alliance with Bong Joon-ho. The New Soundtrack, 8 (2), pp. 145-159. ISSN 2042-8855

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Abstract

In Screenwriting for Sound, Randy Thom makes a persuasive case that sound designers should be involved in film production'as early as the screenplay…early participation of sound can make a big difference'. Drawing on a critically neglected yet internationally significant example of a creative alliance between a director and post-production team, this article demonstrates that early participation happens in innovative ways in today's globally competitive South Korean film industry.

This key argument is presented through close analysis of the ongoing collaboration between Live Tone – the leading audio post-production studio in South Korea – and internationally acclaimed director Bong Joon-ho, who has worked with the company on all six of his feature films to date. Their creative alliance has recently ventured into new and ambitious territory as audio studio and director have risen to the challenge of designing the sound for the two biggest films in Korean movie history, Snowpiercer and Okja. Both of these large-scale multi-language movies were planned at the screenplay stage via coordinated use of Live Tone's singular development of 'film sound maps'. It is this close and efficient interaction between audio company and client that has helped Bong and Live Tone bring to maturity their plans for the two films' highly challenging soundscapes.

Through practitioner interviews with Live Tone staff as well as the results of original empirical research into both English and Korean-language sources, we explain what a Live Tone ‘film sound map’ is, consider how it functions as an early blueprint for the design of ambitious soundscapes, and illustrate how it facilitates ongoing creative interaction among key personnel on Okja as well as Snowpiercer.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	The New Soundtrack
Creators:	Lee, N.J.-Y. and Stringer, J.
Publisher:	Edinburgh University Press
Date:	1 September 2018
Volume:	8
Number:	2
ISSN:	2042-8855
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.3366/sound.2018.0127 DOI
Divisions:	Schools > School of Arts and Humanities
Record created by:	Linda Sullivan
Date Added:	24 Jul 2018 09:42
Last Modified:	11 Sep 2019 11:19
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/34148

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